Sunday, September 20, 2015

Good evening, it is time to link up with Mrs. Wills for a Peek at my Week. I apologize for missing last week. I was out of town spending the weekend with my grandmother. It was a wonderful weekend and blogging was put on hold for a time.

This is week 5. We are learning about apples. This week we will be reading fictional stories about apple trees and apples. We are working on Concepts of print and word tracking. We will use my Concept of Prints Emergent Reader for apples. The booklets have dots on the words for the students to practice work tracking.

We are adding our first vowel to our letter knowledge this week. We will learn both the long and the short sound of Aa. We will use letter tiles for M, T, S, P, & A to create words and learn how to sound out words.

In math we will be working on the numbers 3 & 4. Our school is working on number sense in all grades this year. I am focusing and a number for two days. We will count the number, us manipulatives to show the number, create the number on a 5 frame, and use a number map to demonstrate our knowledge of the number.

We are still learning about how to be scientists. How to use our five senses to make observations about our world. This week we will take a walk and draw what we see, listen to sounds and identify what is making them, and finally use all our senses to describe an apple.

There you go, a quick Peek at My Week. What are you learning about this week? Check out the other teachers sharing their weeks.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

I did a quick demonstration of Augmented Reality this morning. I am using the AR Flashcards Alphabet app. The app and Flashcards are free and they work on my older devices. I only got to play around with a couple kids, but they had a blast. This will definitely be a center for a while.

Monday, September 7, 2015

Another week is upon us. I tried to plan on Sunday, but the sun was shining and the pool was calling my name. I am on week 3 of school and we are learning about Colors and my 2nd favorite color book; Brown Bear, Brown Bear. (Next week is my favorite color book)

We are reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear all week. We are working on Concepts of print, by the end of the week I am hoping to have several who can touch the words as I read. I have a felt board set we will use for retelling as well. We are learning about the author and illustrator this week, the person's name and their job.

We will practice word tracking with my Concepts of Print booklets, the school version this week.

We will also be learning our color words. We will sort all types of objects by their color. We will match colors and color words. We are still working on name the letters in our name, finding our names, and writing them beautifully. We are going to do a letter hunt on Thursday around the school and look for just the letters in our own names.

Our letters of the week are Mm and Ss. We will use the Simply Kinder letter and sound hats again after we learn the letter.

Math is all about counting to 10, identifying numerals to 10, writing numerals to 10, and lots and lots of time learning to use our manipulatives.

This will be the first week for ELA centers as well. Lots of modeling and working with the students as they explore the available materials.

Don't forget the check out some more plans on Mrs. Wills Kindergarten Peek at my Week linky.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

I was inspired by Greg Smedley's post about Number Recognition here. A simple, yet effective activity. Why not do the same thing for letter?

I have a few kiddos who do not know the letter names. I realized that Greg's technique for numbers will work just as well. **Who I am kidding, I am 'stealing' the idea. After all, the best teachers Beg, Borrow, and "Steal" ideas.**

I focus on two letters a week until they are all taught and reviewed. I do 4 consonants than a vowel and word families. My class is 85% second language learners, so everyone can use a little more practice with letters and sounds and vocabulary.

I made a letter mat for each group of 4 letters and one with all the vowels.

The letter mats are made to be printed on Legal sized paper. Of course with a PDF you can select Fit or Shrink Oversized Pages to print on letter sized paper.

The letter cards are made to be printed on letter sized paper. I made those different colors and used a more standard looking font.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

I have been impatiently waiting for today. I have been back at school since 8/24. I finally get to share my room. Thank you to Ashley and Angie for hosting the 2getherwearebetter linkup with all the reveals. So here goes nothing!!

I have a wall on either side of my door that I can decorate and use for student work. WELCOME to my area. The canvas next to my door is my motto "Keep Calm and Don't Forget to Play."

Open the door and come on in.

This is the view from the doorway. I still have a kitchen, blocks and other 'language' development materials in my room. The table to the right is our writing center. Continuing on a 360° tour of our room.

I have 6 desktops in my room. Wait, though, I am a 1:1 technology classroom. There's more. I use the space above the computers for colors and shapes.

My room is a rectangle, so I have a long space across the front of the room. Here you find our number posters, a sensory bin with a Pocket Chart attached to the wall for future sorting, the math center shelf, and blocks. I have a simple calendar and number sense are on the board.

This is also where I keep my Alphabet. I can easily remove the letters as I teach them, and they are at a good height for the kids.

Apparently missing is my Promethean Board, you can see the corner on the left of the photo. I love my board and have been using one for 7 years. This is my teaching area, big book easel, regular easel for another PC, chart papers and Feed Me monster. The space in the back is the teacher area. I have a built in desk that is too long, but I am stuck with it.

I use that long teacher desk to define my reading area. The READ frames hide the back of my computer and phone. I attach felt boards to the desk for story retelling. The white toy box contains several Build A Bear animals and clothes for 'language' development time. See the tall cart?!?! That is my laptop cart with 15 laptops. We use them for learning, digital storytelling, individual assessments, and so much more. It is my favorite piece of furniture in the entire room.

Continuing the circle, next to the reading center is the small group table. The back wall is full of our cubbies, the sink, reading centers and the bathroom.

I did a lot of debating with my student tables this year. I decided on the 'U' approach with a bookshelf. During the day, the kids will keep their laptop on the bookshelf when it isn't being used.

The rug is our whole group area. The other door in the back is too my closet. On it hang our "I CAN DO IT" necklaces and next to it are the school wide PBIS reward system.

And finally, a small portion of my desk with my new Creative Clips desk calendar. The colors make me smile. Along with my kitty cat tape dispenser.